Hin Nam No proected area

I wanted to go to Hin Nam No protected area because there was a spectacular poster of it outside my office in VTE and the head of the tiger project said it contained wildlife found nowhere else in Laos because of its natural fortification. It’s along route 12 to the Vietnam border and one of the most beautiful journeys we’ve done.

At Nongchan we found we could stay in accommodation for visiting government officials, which was salubrious but unused and filthy—we spent the first morning cleaning. Then we took the road out to the Vietnamese border with stunning views over the only extensive range of forest in the plain between mountain ranges which I’ve seen in Laos. Anywhere near populations and it’s all cleared for agriculture. This is very important for biodiversity because not all species can live in the mountains.

We found a route we could cycle into the protected area. We got to the end of the Mine Action Group markers which indicate that the red side is uncleared. Here local people were searching for scrap from the bombs using metal detectors.

The area was good for birds—lots of racket tailed drongos and we even saw a couple of species of squirrel.

The next day we went south along what would have been part of the Ho Chi Minh trail and found another route by bike into the protected area. As we started down the road a UXO Lao vehicle rushed past and there was an explosion from the direction they went about half an hour later.

It was a long way through villages and agricultural land to the forest which was being cleared and burnt but was full of bird calls. We got a warm reception from an elderly man at the last village before the forest. The area had been heavily bombed and was littered with craters, so many they often touch. He was a child during the war and described how the village had two underground shelters in opposite directions from the village. Whichever direction the bombing came from they went the other way, he told us laughing. No people didn’t die by many lost arms and legs.